EAGLE UPDATE -- COG SLIPPING -- TRUST AND BETRAYAL

Big Bear Bald Eagle Update. (see original blog post timeline March 24^th)

Live Video Cam:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2dUgK6VV4

2 Eggs expected to hatch with the first egg about April 10^th   -- next week?
-- the second egg maybe 3 days later

Sat. 3/30 evening:    I took a quick peek to see either Jackie or Shadow sleeping on the nest, head and beak tucked into wing feathers.   Hours later I peeked again to discover whichever eagle it was had awakened and was turning the eggs before settling down to sleep again in a  different position.

Sun. 3/31 late afternoon:  A brief visit revealed the eagle making a big yawn-n-n; later a couple of instances of the eagle appearing to regurgitate stored food for meal-time digestion.    

     “Eagles have an out pouching of the esophagus called a crop, where they can store food   when the stomach is full.  The crop also separates indigestible substances, such as feathers, fur, and scales from the meat.”  described in Bald Eagle Info link.

I also heard the eagle produce several different calls. 

        “For such a powerful bird, the Bald Eagle emits surprisingly weak-sounding calls – usually a series of high-pitched whistling or piping notes.” 

The sound we hear the Bald Eagle make on TV and in movies is usually the dubbed-in much fiercer sound of the Red-tailed Hawk though it’s a much smaller bird.   You can hear a sound comparison on this National Public Radio link.  

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COG SLIPPING

Earlier in the week I arose one morning reviewing in my mind that I had an appointment later in the day as I engaged in my personal care and dressing.  I had slept-in to compensate for night owl hours the previous evening, so brunch was my first meal of the day.   A few hours later I actually arrived a little early for my appointment.  I sat down to wait.   My thoughts reviewing my previous hours activities suddenly resulted in my realizing this wasn’t the weekday I thought it was  -- my appointment wasn’t until the next day!  Here I was trying to skip a whole day!  

Everyone there and I had a good laugh before I returned  home.    I’m rationalizing this whole event, that I haven’t slipped a cog, based on the fact that for several weeks we had been changing my regular appointment around for a variety of reasons and this week we were going back to our regular day and time ..... but this wasn’t that day.   Somehow, I was just discombobulated     Hm-m-m, sure hope I’m not “losing it”.  

I do take comfort in the knowledge I’ve occasionally mixed days for decades, especially when my children would have a weekday off from school due to special teacher’s meetings, or whatever.  Still, when we are slotted into the “being old” category and memory-related functions occasionally misfire we can wonder. 

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TRUST AND BETRAYAL

What happened?    Has there been a betrayal?     Who do we trust?     

The CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and others have all reported Russia did interfere in the U.S. 2016 Elections.  (Yeah, I know, our President says he believes Putin who denies interfering).  We’ve been told Russia is  expected to continue interfering as we go into our 2020 elections.

I think a non-partisan investigation needs to continue into how and what is being done.  We need to know that actions are being taken to insure the security of our elections – the voting system that is the foundation of our democratic process.  This is the patriotic thing to do.  

Meanwhile, back in the bird cage (I think that fits better than saying "back at the ranch" .........

Attorney General William Barr’s four page letter summarizes “the principle conclusions” in an ongoing review of the long-awaited special counsel Robert Mueller Report of nearly 400 pages as reported in the NYT. 

“The report explains that the Special Counsel and his staff thoroughly investigated allegations that members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, and others associated with it, conspired with the Russian government in its efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, or sought to obstruct the related federal investigations. “

Responding to legislators and the public’s demand to see the whole Mueller Report AG Barr has announced such a release to be “mid-April, if not sooner”,  following review for legally necessary and security redactions.   Our President has said he has no objection to that reports full release to the public.

The Mueller Report found that the Trump Campaign and its associates had not conspired with Russia in the 2016 Election.   Whether Trump obstructed justice  was a conclusion Mueller declined to make.  

AG Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after an initial brief  Mueller Report review as printed in the New York Times wrote:

  “The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”
                                       * .                                     *                                 *

Because actions cannot be proven illegal for prosecution to a degree achieving conviction in a court of law, does not mean they did not occur.  

Meanwhile our President trumpets the Mueller Report of the Trump campaign and its associates not having been found to have conspired with Russia in the 2016 Election in his usual bloviating manner – fact mixed with falsehood, exaggerations, and misrepresentations.  How do we trust someone like that?

Not to be ignored is the fact there have been multiple criminal indictments with prison sentences for those associated with him.

“Mueller's 22-month investigation, however, netted indictments against 34 people and three entities on nearly 200 separate criminal charges. Five associates of Trump have been convicted, and another, Roger Stone, is awaiting trial.”

For a President whose character, ethics and value system are questioned by many with no political axe to grind, is it any wonder some common questions and sayings also come to mind:

Can a person be known by the company they keep?  

Are people influenced by those with whom they associate?

Do birds of a feather flock together?

Some of the topics this week prompt me to think of all kinds of birds at the risk of insulting a few -- Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks, Night Owls, and then there are the Flighty Birds, Jailbirds, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Dodos, Coots, Buzzards plus Loons and Cuckold Cuckoos  .......